Gates Package — page 920

was a master of logistics, a skill that made him indispensable in the successful effort to eradicate smallpox. In January 1976, a solider serving at Fort Dix in New Jersey died from swine flu after doing a five-mile march while sick. Thirteen others were hospitalized with the disease. Doctors discovered that the men all had a strain of influenza similar to the one that had caused the 1918 pandemic. The outbreak never expanded beyond Fort Dix. But in February 1976, worried that there could be a replay of the 1918 disaster when flu season came around that fall--which would mean tens of millions of deaths around the world--Sencer called for mass immunization against this particular strain of swine flu. A presidential panel that included the legendary researchers Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, both of whom had developed groundbreaking polio vaccines, backed the idea. President Gerald Ford went on television to announce his support for a mass immunization drive, and the campaign quickly kicked into gear. By mid-December, signs of trouble were emerging. Ten states reported cases of vaccinated people contracting Guillain-Barré syndrome, or GBS, an autoimmune disease that causes nerve damage and muscle weakness. The vaccination program was suspended later that month and never reinstated. Shortly thereafter, Sencer was informed that he would be replaced as head of the CDC. He was never told why. In total, GBS cases occurred in 362 patients out of the 45 million people vaccinated7--a rate around four times higher than you would expect with the general population. Today, some experts doubt whether there is a connection between the vaccine and GBS, a belief that Sencer stood by until his death. One study concluded that, even if the vaccine did cause GBS in rare